Godwin Brumowski was born on 26 July 1889 in Wadowice, Galicia, the son of Albin Brumowski, a regular officer and later Federal Secretary of the Austrian Red Cross Society. Brumowski became Austria-Hungary’s most successful fighter pilot during World War I on account of the number of air victories he scored. After attending the military secondary schools in Fischau and Mährisch-Weißkirchen [today Hranice, Czech Republic]), he graduated from the Austro-Hungarian Technical Military Academy in Mödling and on 18 August 1910 was promoted to lieutenant in the third battery of the 29th Field Artillery Regiment in Jaroslaw/Jarosław. At the outbreak of World War I Brumowski was serving as a Regimental Adjutant in the 6th (later 8th) Horse Artillery Division on the Eastern front. In July 1915 he volunteered for transfer as an observer to the Austro-Hungarian Aviation Troops, which had been formed shortly before the First World War. Brumowski was assigned to the Pflanzer-Baltin army group in Fliegerkompanie 1 (Flik 1) stationed in Kolomea [today Kolomya] as an Observer Officer to carry out air reconnaissance and provide artillery support. After his military pilot training, he was officially appointed a pilot in the Flik on 4 July 1916. In November 1916 Brumowski was posted to the Isonzo front. The south-west front created here when Italy joined the war in 1915 was a direct threat to Austria-Hungary’s heartland, so forces had to be transferred here from other theatres of war. Air space and the deployment of aeroplanes were to play a significant role in the battles fought bitterly along the Isonzo river. Brumowski was posted to Fliegerkompanie 12 stationed in Wippach/Vipava. In March 1917 he was sent to the German Western front so he could gain first-hand experience of the German fighter tactics developed by Oswald Boelcke and apply these to the methods of combat used by the Austro-Hungarian aviation troops. Here he allegedly met the “Red Baron”, Manfred von Richthofen, the German fighter ace who at that time had already been awarded the Pour le Mérite, the highest military decoration of the German Empire. Von Richthofen was already being exploited by propaganda and a hero cult based on chivalry and fairness – which clashed with the true reality of aerial warfare – was created around him. After his return in March 1917 Brumowski assumed command over the Austro-Hungarian Air Force’s first dedicated fighter squadron, Fliegerkompanie 41(J). By this time aerial combat had increased in pace, which was also apparent from the number of air victories. Brumowski was also amassing “air victories” at an increasing rate and was now top of the list of the Austro-Hungarian army’s fighter pilots. This status and the self-image that went with this were also reflected through his plane: from around October/November 1917 – in emulation of the “Red Baron” – he flew a red painted Albatros D III, to which he added a particular symbol: a white skull against a black background. Just like Richthofen, Brumowski also dispensed with camouflage, which in fact was essential in air warfare. From May/August 1917 until the end of the war Brumowski continued to amass air victories. Aerial combat was intensified to new levels during the last battle of the Isonzo, the breakthrough battle in the Plezzo - Tolmino areas and in the Battle of the Piave and those fought over Montello. Brumowski fought 30 of his confirmed 35 air victories in this period. On 11 October 1918 he was appointed to command the Austro-Hungarian fighter squadrons on the Isonzo front, which grouped together all the fighter pilot units. A few weeks later the Austro-Hungarian army called for a ceasefire, the “Great War” had come to an end.

Although Brumowski’s achievements as a fighter pilot were recognised from a military point of view, as proven by his being decorated with the Golden Bravery Medal for Officers and numerous other orders (though he never received the Knight’s Cross of the Military Order of Maria-Theresa), his enormous value in terms of propaganda for Austria-Hungary was never acknowledged. As a result he was never exploited in the same way and so never achieved the degree of fame that for example Manfred von Richthofen, who on 21 April 1918 had died a “hero’s death for his fatherland”, had achieved and after the First World War quickly faded into oblivion.

After 1918 he retired from service and attempted to make a living by farming in Siebenbürgen but did not make a success of it. He returned to Vienna where he became an Austrian Flying Club flying instructor and took part in a number of flying competitions. During the February Uprising (Austrian Civil War) in 1934 Brumowski took part in the air raids on the Goethe-Hof in Vienna carried out by homeland security and a police trained fighter squadron. On 3 June 1936 Brumowski died in his 47th year in a civil plane crash in Schiphol, Amsterdam. He was buried in the central cemetery in Vienna with military honours. In 1967 the Austrian Federal Army Air Base in Langenlebarn was named after him.